[New-imc] Re: [Imc-communication] No more IMC Finland

[Petros Evdokas]

Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003
From: Tapio Laakso <talaakso at cc.hut.fi>
Subject: [Imc-communication] No more IMC Finland

To: imc-europe at lists.indymedia.org,     ""
        <Imc-communication at lists.indymedia.org>
Cc: Imc-finland-process at lists.indymedia.org

I have sad news from Finland. Indymedia Finland is gone. Lack of
resources, badly working collective etc. lead us to this difficult
decission. Since end of 2001 we have been in renewing process that newer
worked out.

We hope that this can be a wakening signal that will lead to something
new. Because we need alrenative media in Finland.

We consider that there is no more IMC Finland. If someone wants start one
they should go through new indymedia process. That will show if
the collective is really working. We would like to still keep our wiki
site and mailing lists. We are trying to figure out what we are going to
do now.

I might be coming to N5M and I would be interested to talk little bit
about problems that led to this.



Tapio Laakso, Finland
still trying to do independent media


--
Tapio Laakso
public key: http://www.hut.fi/~talaakso/tapio.gpg
"Freeing migration could enrich humanity even more
than freeing trade." -- The Economist

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Hello Tapio,

Truly sad news.
But there are ways that imc may banefit from this development.

Most probable the fate suffered by imc-finland is due to situation which
*many* imc groups are facing. It would improve our network of organizations
if we could do some evaluation of how things went, what kind of general
forces were at work, what could have been done to repair things at certain
stages - some sort of anaylysis which can help prevent this from happening to
toher imc groups, and perhaps help imc--finland become re-organized.

I'm not suggesting we look for "blame" and all that. But to look for general
observations, or lessons, suggestions for improvements, things to do better
next time.

Most probably the Finland imc group is being honest about things which are
plagueing *many* of our imc groups. But in other groups those problems are
usually kept hidden under the covers, until the group becomes dysfunctional.
Finland's experiences perhaps can help other groups identify the severity of
problems and deal with them now, before a group is forced to disband (either
"forced" to do this by admirable honesty, as in imc-finland's case, or really
forced, by denial- induced  paralysis, as is case of other imc groups).

If you Tapio, or any other imc-finland colleagues put together any text with
self- reflections, evaluations, critiques, suggestions for prevention, etc. I
know that there are many IndyMedia colleagues all over the world who would
benefit from it. And several imc groups, which are either now teeterig on the
edge of disaster, or new imc groups which are trying to form now and are not
able to overcome similar obstacles as the ones you encountered, might be
helped by your thoughts and experiences.

I know that the volunteers of the imc-working group would benefit from
reading your thoughts, and so I'm including a copy of this to new-imc.

The imc-finances group has some criteria for funding imc projects, but has
not yet sat down with *any* of the groups it funds to look at the specifics
of the organizations, the way they operate, etc, before sending money. So, it
would benefit all of IndyMedia, if the imc-finance group might be guided by
your (unfortunately negative) experiences.

I'm including copies of this to groups in our Eastern Mediterranean region
which do not have liaisons on the imc-communication group, to share the news.
If the imc-groups of major European countries can suffer a fate like this
(you might remember similar situations in the past had engulfed imc-france,
imc-russia), what can we do to protect our imc groups in countries in our
region of the planet which are either too small, too backwards, or directly
colonised?

Thanks, and the best of wishes.
Petros
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